1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method to promote growth of a plant by administration of an organic acid with a low molecular weight to avoid photo-oxidation damage of the plant. This invention also relates to a method to promote growth of a plant by administration of an alcohol to avoid photo-oxidation damage of the plant.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, shortage of food production have became a serious problem because of population explosion throughout the world. Growth and metabolism of a plant are affected by various conditions of surroundings. Photo-oxidation damage is caused by alteration of surrounding conditions and triggered by decrease of carbon dioxide uptake, through closure of stoma under condition of strong light-intensity and droughtiness. Because of shortage of carbon dioxide under such condition, excess amount of energy is acquired by photosynthesis system. As the result, excess amount of active oxygen beyond defense ability of the plant is generated, which results in occurrence of the photo-oxidation damage. As such photo-oxidation damage inhibits plant growth, a method to prevent this phenomenon is desired. Heretofore, a transgenic plant having ability to delete active oxygen have been used for such purpose.
Despite of it, production of a transgenic plant with such characteristic takes much time and the range of plants suitable for producing such transgenic plant is limited. Therefore, the development of a method to prevent photo-oxidation damage with simplicity and wide-utility have been desired to promote growth of a plant.
It is known that, a plant metabolizes methanol and converts it to carbon dioxide, through formaldehyde and formic acid as the intermediate. Then the inventors administrated formic acid, an organic acid with a low molecular weight, to rice, tabacco and kidney bean and found avoidance of photo-oxidation damage. Moreover, the inventors have investigated effect of formic acid on growth of rice plant bodies and found its effectiveness on growth promotion. Moreover, the induction of formate dehydrogenase (FDH) activity, which metabolizes formic acid to produce carbon dioxide, was observed by administration of formic acid. Furthermore, the amino acid sequence of formate dehydrogenase (FDH) and the base sequence encoding the enzyme were determined. The photo-oxidation damage might be prevented by incorporation of FDH gene.
The inventors have also administrated methanol, an alcohol with a low molecular weight, to avoid photo-oxidation damage of rice, tabacco and kidney bean. Therefore, methanol might be effective for promotion of plant growth.
These and other features and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon a reading of the detailed description and drawings.